The global issue of food waste is becoming an increasingly crucial concern at both government and consumer levels. From a worldwide standpoint, one-third of all food produced is lost or wasted - that’s around 1.3 billion tonnes of food - costing the global economy close to $940 billion each year. In Australia alone, the Federal Government estimates food waste costs the national economy $20 billion each year.
Scientists estimate more than 8% of the greenhouse gas heating the planet is the by-product of food waste rotting in landfill. In Australia alone, eliminating this food waste from landfill would save 9.5 million tonnes of CO2e emissions per year, the equivalent of taking one in three vehicles off the road.
Globally, an enormous focus and effort has been directed to the repurposing of food waste and whilst this is essential, there also needs to be a much greater emphasis on the avoidance and minimisation of food waste in the first place.
We must evaluate how we can reduce, reuse and repurpose waste throughout the entirety of its life cycle, in addition to recycling after the product is wasted.
Having the ability to avoid waste production at the beginning of its life cycle, can dramatically reduce the amount of waste an organisation generates, save costs, and improve its brand image collectively. Examples have shown that:
Using the right tools to understand what has been wasted is the first step in avoiding the creation of food waste at the outset. This is achieved by enabling the optimization of the entire food supply chain.
By better understanding food waste, organisations will be empowered to make informed decisions and optimise work practices, leading to reducing avoidable food waste. Through these changes, they benefit from savings in food, labour costs and food disposal, while positively impacting the environment.
Eco Guardians is introducing its Full Organic Waste Solution and Food Waste Management Lifecycle, from the procurement of food to the recycling and reuse of food waste.
Eco Guardians now have the ability to address organic waste in its entirety.
In order to fully achieve a sustainable circular economy, all aspects of the waste life cycle must be optimised. With the addition of the KITRO technology to its range, Eco Guardians now can help with food procurement, food waste avoidance, food waste repurposing and food waste recycling.
Through KITRO technology, you are able to assess and capture in detail what is being wasted and in what quantities. This in turn will enable you to manage procurement of your food needs more accurately and economically, thus creating less food waste, less environmental impact and a better bottom line.
This creates a truly sustainable circular economy that not only helps save the planet but also helps your organization's bottom line.
All menus and recipes are loaded into the KITRO system.
Using a hardware solution that is installed in kitchens and service areas above the properties existing food waste bins, KITRO automatically captures the weight, time and an image of every item thrown away. This information is collected and sent to our backend software to automatically analyse the data. From this, the customers receive tailored analytic overviews of their waste composition, cost and areas of improvement.
KITRO automatically identifies what fills the bins with a high degree of accuracy. So when you throw away a carrot, KITRO can tell you whether it's a whole carrot or the carrot peel, the amount thrown away, when it happened and even how much it cost you. If the technology fails to recognise a product such as dough, it has the ability to learn and recognise it in the future. The technology can also identify any contamination such as plastics, glass, cardboard etc.
The system comes with a personalised dashboard that allows you to evaluate your primary sources of waste, identify cost drivers and understand where you can save. This online dashboard means that organisations can compare multiple venues at once and share the results.
This plug-and-play solution stays out of the way of kitchen operations and is adjustable to fit any size bin (up to 120 litres).Simply put, the device will adjust to your bin size and operate independently without the need for any interaction from your kitchen staff.
Practising waste avoidance within organisations with large food procurement bills can yield significant economic benefits and save natural resources. With labour as the main cost driver (51.2%) for Swiss restaurants, 27.2% of costs come from the purchase of goods (GastroSuisse, 2017). Research on food waste reveals that roughly 20% of the food in restaurants is being wasted, and 2/3 of that is avoidable food waste (Betz et al., 2014). Therefore, restaurants can save significant costs when reducing waste. KITRO has achieved significant cost saving success across Switzerland and Europe, with some organisations achieving savings up to $40,000 per year. The larger the food procurement bill, the more significant the potential savings may be.
KITRO’s ability to act as a cost-saving tool to businesses is the greatest asset of this technology. There have been a number of success stories across Europe where businesses have been able to save thousands of dollars on their food procurement bills.
Coop is one of the largest supermarket chains in Switzerland. In 2017, Coop became the most sustainable retailer in the world, with more than 370 actions, their campaign: “Taten stattWorte” (Actions not Words) aims to make the world a greener and more sustainable place.
Across 12 months, Coop recognised these significant reductions and saving:
The benefits of this technology are not limited to the economics of a business. This sort of economic success is further accompanied by the substantial environmental advantages as waste is being avoided at the source and, thus, diverted from landfill where the rotting food is harming the environment.
KITRO technology strives to work closely with chefs as they are at the frontline of food waste reduction. These individuals directly influence the choice of ingredients and menus served in your venue, thus enabling the organisation to understand your food cost in detail.
Essentially, KITRO fills the gap, giving an organisation a fresh perspective and a new KPI to monitor your performance so you can react quickly, align your business objectives, and optimise your food cost profit margin.
As is the case with all Eco Guardian systems, the environmental benefits are at the forefront of consideration. As less and less food is being wasted each week, month and year, it means less organic waste is rotting in landfill and harming the environment.
KITRO’s goal is to bring visibility and numbers to food waste, empowering the food and beverage industry to take action to tackle this growing issue. We aim to bring back the value of food, so that all food is appreciated and not wasted.
